Ohio senators passed a state budget bill 24-7 Thursday despite industry opposition to provisions requiring age verification for social media and limiting wireless eligibility for broadband grants. A New Jersey Assembly panel later that day approved a bill to set children’s privacy rules. Earlier this week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed a kids’ social media measure, plus bills to ban TikTok and require a council to study artificial intelligence. The Arizona legislature passed a broader bill to regulate social media.
The Senate Judiciary Committee passed legislation for a second time Thursday that would allow news outlets to negotiate with the tech industry for compensation when platforms host news content (see 2306140042). Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told us a potential floor vote is a “long way” off, and ranking member Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said during the hearing he expects the bill will ultimately “go nowhere.”
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told us he doesn’t plan to seek amendments to the Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act involving his push to delay a deal on a spectrum legislative package until after DOD completes a study of its systems on the 3.1-3.45 GHz band (see 2305170037). The 175-member House-side Republican Study Committee, meanwhile, backed restoring the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority for an indeterminate amount of time, in its FY24 budget proposal.
Major broadcasters are banking heavily on ATSC 3.0-enabled datacasting services as a significant future revenue stream, speakers said Thursday at a NextGen TV conference in Washington. Numerous broadcasters said one big NextGen hurdle remains the dearth of ATSC 3.0 receivers and 3.0-compatible TV sets deployed and in use.
The reaction has been muted to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's speech Wednesday launching a Privacy and Data Protection Task Force and urging a more aggressive approach by the agency on data privacy (see 2306140075). But some observers questioned how far the FCC can go under its legal authority to regulate privacy. Rosenworcel said Wednesday sections 222 and 631 of the Communication Act provide the grounding for FCC action. Congress rejected ISP privacy rules approved under former Chairman Tom Wheeler, through a Congressional Review Act resolution (see 1704040059).
Here are last week’s most-read stories on court proceedings affecting telecom, tech and media that were covered in-depth by our sibling publication Communications Litigation Today. Current subscribers can click the reference number hyperlink or search the story title. Nonsubscribers can gain access by signing up for a complimentary preview.
The goal of this summer’s Senate briefings on artificial intelligence is to reach agreement on legislation that allows technological innovation and protects individual privacy, Sens. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told us Tuesday.
The FCC is extending the deadlines for filings made in the universal licensing system and antenna structure registration system (ASR) and warned that, like those systems, the tower construction notification system (TCNS) and E-106 System also went down last Friday at about 6:30 p.m. EDT, said a notice in Wednesday’s Daily Digest.
Fixed wireless access is accelerating and shows no signs of slowing down, experts said during a Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) FWA Forum webinar Wednesday. GSA identified announced FWA service offers using LTE or 5G from 535 operators in 186 countries and territories and launched service from 455 operators in 173, per a new report.
The FCC is launching a Privacy and Data Protection Task Force, made up of technical and legal experts from across the agency, with a focus on enforcement, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Wednesday in a speech at the Center for Democracy and Technology. Rosenworcel said Enforcement Bureau Chief Loyaan Egal will chair the task force. “Right out of the gate, we are showing that this task force means business,” Rosenworcel said.